- The suspect took $300K in cryptocurrency by accessing passenger phones.
- Hussein is facing theft, fraud, and money laundering accusations.
A Scottsdale man accused of impersonating an Uber driver was arrested for allegedly ripping off $300,000 in cryptocurrency from two different passengers. Scottsdale detectives and U.S. authorities booked Nuruhussein Hussein on December 11. Secret Service agents. He now faces charges of theft, fraud, and money laundering.
Incidents took place outside the W Hotel in Scottsdale, both in March and October. Authorities said Hussein posed as the Uber driver that victims were expecting by using their names to gain their trust. Then, when they entered his car, he reportedly asked to have access to their phones, this time under false pretenses.
At one point, he said that his own was broken and that he required the one belonging to his hostage. On another occasion, he agreed to “work through” a supposed defect with the Uber app. All while having custody of the mobiles, Hussein is also reported to have accessed the victim’s Coinbase accounts and transferred cryptocurrencies held by the victims into a wallet from which he alone accesses – his cold storage.
Crypto Scams Expose Offline Thefts Patterns
Authorities are holding Hussein with a $200,000 cash bond and will place him under electronic monitoring if they grant him bail. The court also restrained him from using the internet and traveling outside the country since the prosecutors deemed his frequent visitations to Ethiopia suspicious. The court is expected to hear him again on 18th December.
One of the cases is the rising off-line cryptocurrency thefts. This is because, as reported by GitHub, in 2024, there were 19 global cases of offline crypto theft, an upsurge from 17 cases in 2023.
The latest incidents include an ATM theft in Melbourne, Australia. Someone later discovered the Bitcoin machine burnt in the park. More recently, a California court fined five individuals who participated in the Bitcoin Ponzi scheme called IcomTech $5 million. This fine was due to the misappropriation of funds over $8.4 million.
The case of Hussein goes to highlight the sophisticated offline crypto scams forcing law enforcement to take harsh measures towards counter threats. The authorities have taken an important step by making an arrest. This further opens doors to countering evolving challenges in the investigation process.
